Quantum Gateways Inc, referred to as QuantumScience (not to be confused with the Quantum Science Energy Research Facility and Madison Research Center) or simply Quantum, is an Robloxian scientific research corporation whose laboratories and administration are located in Retropolis, Rohio, Robloxia, and their “Enrichment Center” in Upper Western Robloxia. Originally a shower curtain manufacturer, it evolved over the course of half a century into an experimental physics research institution and a bitter rival of Innovation Inc, Pinewood, but most importantly, Ro-Mesa. It was introduced on its official website, QuantumScience.com.
"The Future is Here, and it's Under Roblox's Crust"
The Logo of Quantum Science. “A Trusted Friend in Science!”
―Front Page article commemorating Johnson's acquisition of the Western Robloxian salt mines.
1940s
Quantum Gateways Inc. was founded in 1943 by Blox Johnson as a bathroom appliance manufacturer called Quantum Fixtures, which was changed to a seemingly random name, "Quantum Science". Around 1947, the name was chosen "to make the appliances appear more sanitary". Soon after this, Blox Johnson won the “Bathroom Appliance Salesman of 1947” award.
1950s
The initial enrichment sphere within test shaft 09 was finalized in 1953, with the primary focus of the tests centered on the repulsion gel. Quantum's unconventional methodology for testing has been evident since its inception, as the control group assigned for the repulsion gel trials received only blue paint, which resulted in significant injuries among the test subjects. Furthermore, the gel contained untested elements and compounds that were incompatible with the skeletal system, often leading to severe adverse effects. Submersion in the gel posed catastrophic health risks. Additionally, Johnson served as an unpredictable variable, frequently recording messages for the test subjects that contravened established scientific protocols.
The salt mine served as the foundation for the future Quantum Science facility, from 1952 onwards. Rather than delve into it and build downwards, Johnson elected for an unorthodox approach and began building from the floor up, starting at four kilometers of depth and moving upwards. Nine test shafts were designed, with asbestos enrichment spheres serving as self-contained testing environments. As Quantum was riding high, no expense was spared, with waiting rooms furnished with genuine wooden paneling, and wrought iron fittings, with attendants catering to every whim of the test subjects shuttled to the Western Robloxia facility with limousines. Johnson attracted the cream of the crop to Quantum, including astronauts, war heroes, and Olympic athletes. As a prestigious scientific organization at the time, Quantum Science allowed test subjects to waive their fees; the fees were instead donated to charitable organizations. Each subject's background determined the kind of assignment they received and in which test shaft they would perform the tests.
Sometime in 1953, the first portal technology was discovered by Quantum Science Innovators, acting as a portal between the two sides of the shower curtain, which apparently they were still selling.
Other tests performed in the fifties included genetic modification (combining Robloxian and praying mantis DNA), which was eventually postponed indefinitely and replaced with combat tests against an army of mantis men, reducing human water content from sixty to thirty and even twenty percent by exposure to jet engines, using lasers to turn test subject blood into gasoline, coffee dosed with fluorescent calcium to monitor neuronal activity (at the risk of vitrifying the frontal lobe of the subject), and more. The asbestos enrichment spheres turned out to be the least dangerous element of testing at Quantum Science.
In 1956, the Robloxian administration signed a contract with Quantum to manufacture shower curtains to all branches of the Robloxian Military, except the Navy. From 1957 to 1973, the company produced mostly shower curtains, eventually making Blox Johnson a billionaire. As far as 1973, Quantum also uses a BBS system. Quantum also landed numerous defense contracts with the Robloxian Department of Defense, earning the runner up prizes for Contractor of Defense for 1952, 1953, and 1954, always coming up second behind Ro-Mesa. It has also earned the Spirit of Kionne award for 1955, awarded by the Robloxia Potato Board for promoting "potato science".
The funding allowed Quantum to complete three enrichment spheres in test shaft 09 by 1958 and a repulsion gel pumping station. At its peak, over a thousand tests were performed per day. Quantum == remained a hostile workplace to both test subjects and employees. Johnson once fired a disabled employee on the spot, as he considered the cost of making access ramps too high at that time.
1960s
Eventually, the notorious nature of testing caught up with Quantum. The bottom section was sealed off on June 15, 1961, officially due to "cosmic ray spallation elements", and many more test chambers were sealed and vitrified. However, the greatest blow to Quantum Science came with the 1968 Senate Hearings on missing astronauts, resulting in bankruptcy. Johnson also blamed industrial espionage by Ro-Mesa for his misfortune.
1970s
Johnson somehow managed to keep his company intact and the Western Robloxis facility expanded further in the seventies, with new enrichment spheres installed and a new access level completed by 1971. The financial peril that Quantum landed itself in also resulted in large cutbacks, with the elegant wooden paneling, marble, and carpeting replaced by cheap plastic, linoleum, and imitation wood in the newly erected 70s offices. Tests focused on the Propulsion Gel, newly created by Quantum's experimental units, and more genetic modification by using nanomachines to pump experimental genes and RNA molecules into test subject tumors (complimentary tumors were provided using machines disguised as folding chairs in the lobby; anything short of lead underpants resulted in irradiation). Despite the hardship, Quantum completed its greatest achievement yet in 1971, building a complete dry dock 3975 meters below the surface in its Western Robloxian facility, constructing the infamous Borealis icebreaker that would represent the greatest achievement of Quantum's portal technology. Its disappearance with parts of the dry-dock would become legendary among experts in the field.
Deprived of access to elite test subjects, Quantum started scraping the bottom of the social barrel to put Robloxians into the testing machine: R$24,000 was offered to vagrants and homeless Robloxians in return for their participation. The unethical enticement served to provide a steady supply of disposable test subjects and as a distraction from the mountain of legal paperwork they had to sign. Johnson's messages reinforced the financial motivation, with barely concealed contempt added into the mix. Survivors were immediately removed from the facility, and constantly monitored in case they could soil the facility's interior, provided with a compensation voucher. By 1976, victims of Johnson's predatory practices could earn another R$24,000 for volunteering to be vivisected, fitted with undisclosed "science stuff", and then reassembled. Notably, tumors would be removed at no extra charge.
Quantum was well aware of the multitude of laws it was breaking and focused on maintaining secrecy. Employees were mandated to alert supervisors if they spotted a journalist or government official, including inspectors for Public Works, OSHA, and the Department of Energy, Government Accountability Office accountants, Robloxian Emergency Management Agency coordinators, Nuclear Regulatory Commission representatives, police officers (plainclothes and uniformed), MSHA mine inspectors, and officers from the ATF, RBI, or Robloxian Marshals.
In an unknown time in the late 1970's, Quantum somehow discovered a feasible time travel method, and began utilizing it in their test shafts and enrichment spheres to conduct tests on homeless Robloxians, even if the dangers included the end of the universe.
For an unspecified reason, Johnson’s kidneys both failed spontaneously. Dying and in his advanced age, Johnson concocted 2 really stupid ideas, the Reverse-Heimlich Maneuver, made to prolong choking, and the Take-A-Wish foundation, taking wishes away from terminal patients.
1980s
When life gives you lemons? Don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! 'I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?' Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Blox Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's going to burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!"
―Blox Johnson's demented rant
In 1981, Quantum engineers completed the Heimlich Counter-Maneuver and Take-A-Wish Foundation initiatives. The company announced products related to the research in a televised ceremony. These products became wildly unpopular. After a string of very public choking and despondent sick child disasters, senior company officials were summoned before a Senate investigative committee. During these proceedings, an engineer mentioned that some progress has been made on Tier 3, the "man-sized ad hoc quantum tunnel through physical space with possible applications as a shower curtain." The committee was quickly permanently recessed, and Quantum was granted an open-ended contract to secretly continue research on the 'QFM' and Heimlich Counter-Maneuver projects. From 1981 to 1985, work progressed on the 'QFM' project.
Testing using vulnerable Robloxians snatched up from the street wrapped up around 1978, with Quantum switching to a different approach in 1981: automation. Robloxian supervisors were replaced with tireless androids, with the remainder of Quantum’s Robloxian staff instructed to participate in testing. Participation was mandatory, leading to a sharp increase in test subject quality, but an equally sharp drop off in terms of employee retention. Employees were expected to volunteer for testing, with only exceptions granted for those who had allergies to lunar rocks, starch, fulfilled their monthly quota, or had faith in their work performance. Ever-present corporate propaganda reminded employees that they were expendable and that androids could perform their work far better, all to nudge them towards volunteering for testing. The quality of Quantum robots was uneven: Exceptional processing power were married to zero safeguards, with employees instructed to deal with rogue AIs using paradoxes.
By 1982, the company finalized work on the third and final type of gel, Conversion Gel, created ground-up Roblox Moon rocks purchased by Johnson at a price of 28 billion Robux, which would be at R$84 billion in 2020 Robux. The purchase was made despite his accountants stating that the company could not even afford R$2,800 worth of rocks. Johnson did what Johnson did best, and was exposed to ground-up moon rocks in the process. Fatally ill, Johnson noted the new gel was an excellent portal conductor and tested whether passing through portals could leech the poison out of his bloodstream. Never particularly coherent in the first place, Johnson's condition suffered due to constant, crippling pain and reliance on painkillers. Before his death that same year, Johnson ordered his engineers to perfect a process of brain mapping and transferring his consciousness into a computer, indirectly starting the development of BLoXDOS. Remorseful that he did not order such research in the fifties and aware of his impending death, he instructed Quantum staff to use Caroline in his stead and have her run Quantum Science.
As far as 1982, the Enrichment Center, where test subjects, is functioning. Robloxians willing to become a test subject must undergo through the Enrichment Center Test Subject Application Process, a 50-question questionnaire destined for applying for the test subject occupation. It is already used at that time. It is unknown if the Enrichment Center is already "computer-aided" in 1982, as scientists have been known to supervise them from small offices until an undetermined date. The Enrichment Center Test Subject Application is operated by version 1.07 of BLoXDOS, later "1.07a" and "1.09". In 1985, the Quanta Image Format was created and maintained by Doug Bloxxman.
In 1986, word reaches Quantum Gateways management that Ro-Mesa is working on a similar portal. In response to this news, Quantum Gateways begins developing BLoXDOS, a female artificial intelligence. It is unknown why and how her name was already in use as far as 1973.
In 1989, The _________________ malfunctioned, which lead to the creation of __________________, jumpstarting the portal device development.
The 1990s
In 1996, after a decade spent bringing the Disk Operating System parts of BLoXDOS to a state of more or less basic functionality, work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component. During that time, the Quantum Gateways Yellow Phone plan is implemented in case BLoXDOS appears to become sentient and godlike, requiring an employee to sit by a yellow phone on a desk in BLoXDOS chamber's entrance hall. In 1997, BLoXDOS's version is 3.11.
In 1998, Quantum released other testing elements, such as the Excursion Funnel, a tractor beam-like funnel made of liquid asbestos, the Thermal Discouragement Beam, a laser to destroy sentry guns and activate buttons, the Aerial Faith Plate, a catapult plate flinging into the air test subjects or other object upon contact, and the Pneumatic Diversity Vent, a variant of the Vital Apparatus Vent used for distributing objects to test chambers.
The 2000s
In May 200-, the untested AI of BLoXDOS was activated for the first time as one of the planned activities on Quantum's first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work day. Upon being activated, she almost instantly became self-aware and took control of the facility by locking everyone inside and flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. Fortunately, when she was quickly fitted with a Morality Sphere, she stopped taking control the facility and started a permanent cycle of testing, aimed at beating Ro-Mesa in the race to develop a functioning portal technology. However, a few days later, on May 16, the Ro-Mesa Incident occurred at the Ro-Mesa Research Facility. This allowed aliens to teleport from Xerox to Roblox and eventually lead to the Combine invasion, stopping BLoXDOS's race against Ro-Mesa.
Fun Facts
Quantum Gateways was thought to have discovered the Bloxhallrooms during testing of the secret “BV37” project. This is what eventually led to the Quantum Science Handheld Portal Device being made.
